AILA New York Chapter

Enforcement & Removal Operations Committee

Bond & Custody 101 CLE

October 16, 2017, 6-9 p.m.

SPEAKER BIOS

Carolyn Corrado is a Junior Partner at Jadeja-Cimone, PLLC in Hempstead, New York. She focuses on removal defense. She serves on the AILA ICE Committee, EOIR Committee and New Members Committee. She earned her J.D. at New York University, and holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Cheryl R. David has been practicing immigration law since 1995. She handles all aspects of immigration law with an emphasis on removal and family-based cases. Prior to opening her own practice she was an associate for five years at Bretz & Coven, LLP where her main area of concentration was deportation defense of criminal aliens. She currently is the co-chair of NY AILA Immigration & Customs Enforcement Committee; A member on the Board of Directors of Asista; Some of her past positions and membership include:

  • Director, American Immigration Lawyers Association Board of Governors, 2007-2013
  • Member, Board of Directors of the City Bar Fund of New York – 2007-2013
  • Chair, National Liaison Committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association and Executive Office for Immigration Review, 2010-2012
  • Chair, National Liaison Committee for the American Immigration Lawyers Association and U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), 2007-2010
  • Chair, AILA NY ICE - Detention & Removal Committee, 2007-2009
  • Chair and Founder, NY AILA Chapter of the juvenilepro-bono committee with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, 2007-2009
  • Member, Immigration & Nationality Committee of the City Bar, 2008-2011
    Co-Chair, NY AILA Chapter Pro Bono Committee -2007-2009
  • Immigrants' List - Founding Member

Edgar L. Fankbonner is an attorney with the firm of Goldberger & Dubin specializing in criminal defense, immigration removal defense, and "crimmigration" matters including post-conviction relief. He is a graduate of SUNY Albany (1998) and earned M.A. and M.Phil graduate degrees from Columbia University in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature (1999, 2003). In 2006 he earned his Juris Doctor degree from Fordam Law School, where he received the Archibald R. Murray Award for Public Service. He began his legal career as an Assistant DA for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, leaving the office for private practice in 2011. Since then, he has represented clients in state and federal criminal matters as well as complex immigration cases before the EOIR immigration court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the federal courts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, and other jurisdictions throughout the United States. He is a member of the New York State criminal-defense bar and has been an AILA member since 2013.

Tracy Lawson is a Senior Attorney in the Immigration Unit of Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defender organization focusing on the indigent of New York’s largest borough. She earned her law degree from the City University of New York (CUNY) Law School, where she participated in CUNY’s renowned clinical programs, including the Economic Justice Project and the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa. Tracy’s legal career has focused in various capacities on advocating for the rights of immigrants and families, with an emphasis on serving low-income communities where criminal and immigration law intersect, beginning an associate at Bretz & Coven, LLP, she focused on family-based immigration, asylum, and removal defense. At the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, she advocated for low-income parents in child protection proceedings, and then immigrant mothers experiencing domestic violence in family court matters at Tubman in Minnesota. At Brooklyn Defender Services, Tracy was a staff attorney in the first in the nation immigration assigned counsel program, New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), and works with criminal defenders to advise non-citizen clients of immigration consequences pursuant to the Supreme Court’s Decision in Padilla v. Kentucky. Ms. Lawson has been an AILA member since 2010 and currently serves on the ERO, EOIR, and Federal Practice committees.

Benjamin Simpson is a senior associate at Cohen Forman Barone LLP after having joined the firm as an intern during law school and later as a full-time attorney beginning in 2012.Ben is a graduate of Skidmore College in 2002 where he majored in philosophy and history and he later earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 2011. Ben’s current work focuses primarily on custody issues and removal defense for both detained and non-detained clients as well as helping client pursue family based immigration benefits. Ben is also a practicing criminal defense attorney in the greater New York City area with a particular focus on post-conviction relief for non-citizens.He has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) since 2013 and is co-chairing the ICE/ERO Committee for the first time this year. He is also a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association (SCBA). A former professional tennis instructor on the East End of Long Island, Ben, his wife, Kate, and dog, Laci, have been making their home in Brooklyn for many years.